1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of ordering and delivering digital prints and a system therefor, which facilitates ordering digital prints and improves efficiency of printing and delivery of the digital prints at low cost without lowering print quality.
2. Background Arts
In the present photo-printing system, photographer or user has to go to a retail D.P.E. (Develop, Print & Enlarge) agent in order to have the exposed photo film developed and printed at a photo-finisher. Thereafter, the user has to go to the retail D.P.E. agent again on or after a designated delivery date to receive the finished prints and developed photo film. Accordingly, user has to go to the D.P.E. agent twice at every print order.
Recently there are a lot of 24-hour convenience stores, most of which double as the D.P.E. agent. Therefore, user can place a print order at any time and take the finished prints at any time after the designated delivery date. However, even if the user forwards the exposed photo film early in the morning, so long as photo-labs work in ordinary business hours, it is difficult to finish and deliver the photo-prints in shorter time.
Meanwhile, digital printing is getting popular these days as personal computers, digital cameras, image scanners and other high-tech digital imaging devices are getting widely used. Digital prints are made by processing image data on the personal computer and printing out hard copies through a personal-use printer of ink jet type or thermal type. The personal-use printer is not able to provide high print quality in comparison with professional printers. In addition, since the price of the personal-use printer is not so reasonable, the conventional digital print system turns out to be costly for most users.